Hertfordshire schools must receive fair slice of new SEND funding

As the Education Secretary announces additional funding for mainstream schools to improve provision for SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) students, Liberal Democrat MP for Harpenden and Berkhamsted, Victoria Collins, is urging the government to fix the broken funding formula and give Hertfordshire children their fair share of additional SEND funding. 

Victoria strongly welcomed the Education Secretary’s latest announcement of additional funding for mainstream schools to improve provision for SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) students. This plan is designed to create more SEND places in such schools, relieving pressures from special schools unable to cope with high demand.

Hertfordshire remains one of the lowest funded areas for SEND services nationwide: the f40 campaign group estimated in May 2024 that, under the existing SEND improvement plan, it would take 15 years for funding for Hertfordshire to catch up with the country’s most adequately funded council authorities. 

That means that a three-year-old in Hertfordshire today would have to finish all their formal education before they would get equal funding with a child elsewhere for their SEND needs.

Victoria is calling on the government to finally fix the SEND postcode lottery, by allocating desperately needed additional funding to Hertfordshire. 

Victoria has raised this issue time and again with the government, following the neglect of SEND under the previous Conservative government which has left too many families across her constituency struggling to access vital support for their children.

This is coupled with years of SEND failings by the local Conservative-controlled county council. When Hertfordshire’s SEND provision was assessed by Ofsted in July 2023, they identified “widespread and/or systematic failings” which have “significant negative impact on the experiences and outcomes of children and young people”. This is the worst possible rating in such assessments. Furthermore, in 96% of EHCP cases taken to tribunal in Hertfordshire, the county council are found to have acted unlawfully, or improperly. 

The Conservative administration at county hall has also resisted efforts to improve SEND services. In February 2023, they initially refused Hertfordshire Liberal Democrats’ calls for an extra £1 million to be invested to local SEND crisis. 

Cash-strapped schools in Hertfordshire are doing their best to provide complex SEND support, but in these circumstances, too many children are being failed. Victoria continues to support local families facing unacceptably long waits for EHCPs, or unable to find SEND places locally, resulting in long and expensive journeys to school.

With plans for the allocation of the government’s recently announced additional £740 million of SEND funding yet to be published, Victoria is calling for Hertfordshire children to receive a fair slice of this, for a long-term fix to the broken national funding formula, and for a rescue plan for SEND provision within her constituency and nationwide.

Victoria Collins, Liberal Democrat MP for Harpenden and Berkhamsted, said:

“One of the issues that comes up most in my inbox, and on the doorsteps, is the crisis in access to SEND provision locally. Whether it’s students being stuck on long waiting lists, desperate to access the education they need, or having to travel huge distances to school due to a shortage of local places.

“Making sure children with special needs and disabilities can access the schools they need in our community is crucial. And as part of this, it’s vital that schools in Harpenden and Berkhamsted receive a fair slice of this new SEND funding package after we have long received shockingly low levels of funding compared to the rest of the country. This has been coupled with SEND provision being neglected by the local county Conservative administration.

“Young people and their families are being failed, and I’ll keep pressuring the government to rectify this by boosting funding and pursuing long-term reform of our SEND system that is key to recovering it, including through a new National Body for SEND.”